AMD Radeon R9 R290X to cost around $549?

Despite being revealed at AMD's press event in Hawaii nearly a month ago, there's still no official, public information about the launch date nor pricing of the Radeon R9 290X. FUD Zilla heard whispers though that the card is supposed to launch tomorrow in the US and on October 25th in most European markets. Pricing is said to be around $549 pre-tax in the US and around 649EUR (incl. VAT) in Europe, but FUD Zilla also heard that AMD has not sent out the official price just yet, so even a day before launch it could still change if the company feels the need to make it more attractive versus NVIDIA's offerings.

The Radeon R290X based on AMD’s new Hawaii chip and it should be selling later on the 24th in the US in etail and select retailers for $549 + tax, which sounds quite amazing for a card that can run faster than the Geforce GTX 780 and in Uber mode can even outrun the Titan selected games. EU listings point to €649 including VAT, which sounds about right. Its main competitor, the GTX 780, has an MSRP of $649, but Asus has cards listed for as little as $535.

Of course there is a catch. In quiet mode the card beats Geforce 780 in some games and benchmarks, not all of them. In Uber mode it needs a lot more power and ends up louder than the Radeon HD 7970 Gigahertz edition. People described the cooler noise in Uber noise as quite loud to us, but we must add that we still haven’t heard it firsthand. In Uber mode the R290X is fast enough to win against Titan in a few benchmarks, but not all.